First Baptist Church of Highland Park

Rev. Dr. Henry P. Davis III: Hi, I'm Henry Davis, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Maryland, a Bible-believing, Christ-centered, and spirit-led congregation. I want to welcome you to our radio broadcast and remember, there's power at the park.

Isaiah 40:29, 30, and 31 in the New Living Translation reads: He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. These are the words of God. You may go to your seats around the building.

The 31st verse is familiar. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. I want to talk in this service from the subject "Mama Didn't Quit." "Mama Didn't Quit."

Mother's Day is a day that we can honor both the visible and the invisible mothers. The labor of grandmothers, aunties, godmothers, church mothers, bonus mothers. We honor women who carried families, ministries, and communities while exhausted themselves. Grace has indeed held us. Because many of us are standing today on the strength, sacrifice, prayers, and perseverance of women who kept going when they had every reason to quit.

That's our reality. There are some people who carried families while carrying their own pain. Some women had to be strong before they even had time to heal. They cooked while tired. They worked while grieving. They prayed while hurting. They smiled even while they were stressed. They held everybody together while secretly wondering who was holding them. And yet, mama didn't quit.

That is the testimony behind the text. Isaiah is speaking to people who are weary, exhausted, emotionally drained, Dr. Washington, and spiritually fatigued. The people of God had been through hardship and disappointment. And in the middle of their exhaustion, God sends a word: I still give strength to the weary. This is a powerful moment because there are mothers in this room who almost broke under the pressure. But grace held them together.

Our Friday morning prayer, I talked about grace for the grind because sometimes we've got the grind. And we're grinding only because of God's grace. Isaiah 40 marks a major shift in the book. Earlier chapters contain warning and judgment. But chapter 40 opens with "comfort, comfort my people." God now speaks restoration to exhausted people. The Israelites were facing instability, fear, uncertainty, and weariness from a prolonged struggle.

That's what I talked in the earlier service about, the woman with the issue of blood. Titled the message "She Kept Going Anyway." In spite of what was going on. In spite of her past. In spite of her present pain. And she did not need Jesus to touch her. She just needed to touch Jesus. God essentially says, "I know you're tired. But here's the good news. I have not abandoned you." That is important because exhaustion can make people feel forgotten.

And many mothers know that feeling. Giving constantly. Sacrificing continually. Carrying everybody else. But rarely being poured into themselves. This text declares God sees exhausted people. Number one, God sees the strength it takes just to keep going. Scripture says he gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless in verse number 29. God does not shame our weakness. He ministers to it. The text does not say he gives strength to people who never get tired.

Everyone in here, we need to go to sleep at night. And if you're like me on Sunday afternoon, there's nothing like a good Sunday afternoon nap. After I finish all of this, if people say, "How do you do it?" thank God for getting in the bed in the afternoon. God strengthens the weak. That means weakness is not failure. Weariness is not sin. Exhaustion does not mean you lack faith.

Some mothers have been carrying loads nobody fully understands. Single mothers, widowed mothers, mothers grieving children, women balancing caregiving and career pressure, grandmothers raising grandchildren, women silently battling anxiety and emotional fatigue. Yet they still get up every morning. Breakfast downstairs. That takes strength.

Every now and then, I like to go over to one of my favorite breakfast spots on Central Avenue, Keethan & Sons. I went to see Keeth this week. I had an urge for a breakfast sandwich. I didn't want a McGriddle. I wanted the kind of breakfast sandwich my mother used to make. Wheat toast, bacon, eggs with cheese in a sandwich. Amen. I arrived at Keeth's and I said I wasn't the only one who wanted something from Keeth because the line was out there.

It takes strength. I grew up in a house where my mother and father were coffee drinkers. I'm not a coffee drinker. But every morning, the coffee would brew downstairs. I knew it was morning just because of the aroma. Matter of fact, that's why I walk in Starbucks sometimes. I walk in Starbucks and don't even order coffee, but I walk in there because I want to smell the aroma. Come on, somebody. I get me one of those refreshers or something, but I get to smell.

Some women became the family emergency contact. The financial planner. The Uber driver. Taking them to this game and this practice and this moment. You became the nurse, the therapist, the chef, the prayer warrior all at the same time. And they did it while still trying to survive personally. Our mother worked nights. She was a nurse. She worked the night shift, what they call the graveyard shift. She'd work all night, come home, and we had a clean house.

We didn't have cleaners coming in every two weeks. She cleaned the house, cooked every day, we had desserts every day. And on Sundays, we had three meats when we left church. And she did all of that and still got us to everything we needed to go to. Sometimes we look at her and now you can have appreciation that she worked all night and yet she still had enough energy to raise three sons and a daughter. And not one of us went to college and graduated without owing any money.

Not a dime. I can remember going to the bank on Saturday mornings with our mother because our father worked and we lived off his salary, but my mother's salary, we banked it. And we would go every Saturday down to Bradley Beach in New Jersey. And they'd give us a lollipop. But she was allowed, it allowed her, when we got to college, that four of us could be in college at the same time.

I'm just testifying. I'm not bragging. I'm just testifying. We went to college and then they gave us a gas card. You can't give a college student a gas card because you're always filling it up. You're filling it up with a gas card and not even working a job because of the sacrifice of our mother. That sacrifice. And there's some women in this room right now. You know about sacrifice. Nobody's got to tell you about it.

You're sacrificing right now. Stuff you're looking at that you'd like to have, but you put it on the back burner because you're trying to pour into the next generation. Grace can hold you together. You have no idea what it took for you to keep going. We have no idea. We can only see the outside of you. We can't see what's going on on the inside. Sacrifice. That's what God is doing.

The second thing is exhaustion does not mean God has left you. One of the enemy's greatest lies: If you're tired, God must not be with you. But exhaustion is often evidence that you have been carrying heavy things. Even Jesus got tired. Even Elijah got weary. Even Paul admitted pressure. And even mothers in scripture had breaking moments. Yet God stayed with them. The danger of exhaustion is that it can distort your perspective. You get a little blurry-eyed when you're tired.

When people are drained emotionally, they can end up questioning themselves. Questioning your value. Questioning your future. Sometimes even questioning God. In weariness. Weariness can have you weaving in a car. I remember one time I was so tired. Again, I was younger. And I'd gone to Norfolk for homecoming weekend. I enjoyed all the homecoming festivities. I got up Sunday morning and preached the Gospel with power after all my homecoming activities. And then after I finished all of that, I drove home.

And then I was working nights. I just got a job at IBM. When you get a job at IBM, you don't necessarily get the job you want, but you get in the door. I was on the midnight shift. And I'd been doing all this homecoming stuff. And I had to drive that night to work. And I had to be there at 12:00. And if you know anything about driving in Jersey, you've got to drive through either you're going to drive the Parkway or the Turnpike. And you're going to have to pay some tolls. That's tolls. I drove the Parkway. Pulled off in my exit. I was sitting there in front of IBM and I had no memory of paying any tolls. Zero.

I'm like, "How in the world did I get here tonight?" I'm sitting in the parking lot. I knew it was only God that kept me. I mean, I could have been on the side of the road. I could have been in something. It was nothing but God's grace. And sometimes as you go through life, you know it's nothing but the grace of God. You ain't all that. None of us are. We're not all that, but God is all that and a bag of chips. God's got every, he's got the whole world in his hands.

Isaiah reminds us God is still present in exhausted seasons. Some mothers in this room, you smiled through the divorce. You smiled through the betrayal. You smiled while you were burying loved ones. You smiled through financial pressure. You smiled through health scares. And some children never fully realized mama was tired too. But grace, I said, but grace. Grace kept holding her. It's like a phone running on 1% battery.

When your phone starts running down, you know you get kind of scared. I know I do. It's like, "What am I going to do? I've got to plug up somewhere. Somebody have a charger? Somebody help a brother out? I don't want to go from one to none." And see, you don't want to go to none especially when everything is on your phone. Like you're not driving and the only way you're getting home is Uber. And the only way I can contact Uber is through my phone. If my phone goes, I'm just throw my hands up. Here's the script. You're trying to run on 1% trying to keep multiple apps open.

Many women have been functioning with almost nothing left emotionally. Yet somehow God kept supplying. There are some mothers in here right now and you know only the Lord did this. Only the Lord showed up. And he shows up over and over and over again. That's our reality, that exhaustion does not mean that God has left you. I'm grateful for that. Thank you for never leaving me nor forsaking me. First thing I told you, God sees the strength it takes just to keep going.

God sees that strength. Some of you going to church today, it was strength of God. It hasn't been an easy week. It hasn't been an easy last 48 hours. But God can move in any and every situation. Come on, somebody ought to give God a praise in here. Here's my last point. God gives new strength to people who refuse to quit. Here's the shouting part. I went through the struggling part. Let's get to the shouting part.

The shouting part is those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. That is not recycled strength. New strength. The Hebrew idea suggests exchange. God exchanges our weakness for his power. That means when your strength runs out, grace steps in. I felt something jump right there. I felt it. The text says they will run and not grow weary. Walk and not faint. Notice, every season is not flying.

Sometimes faith is soaring. Sometimes faith is running. Sometimes faith is simply walking. But it all matters to God. Some mothers deserve praise because they kept walking when life became heavy. This generation celebrates self-made success. But many of us know we're standing on prayers we did not pray ourselves. Come on, talk to me now. Somebody covered us. Somebody sacrificed for us. Somebody cried over us. Somebody believed in us.

Even when we were acting foolish. We baptized a young man last night. It was very moving because he had about 30 people who came to see him get baptized. And I still remember him when he was a baby and he was being blessed. I remember him getting blessed because when he got blessed as a baby, there were about 30 people who came to see him get blessed. I asked him last night, "How many of you were here when he was blessed as a baby?"

Hands go up in the air. But they were able to witness him walk down into that pool giving his life to Jesus. Going down and coming up in the newness of life. Then they left out of here and went to Copper Canyon to have a good dinner. Mama didn't quit on us. That's right, baby. Don't worry about it. We've got a room for you. Just holler. I'm glad that you're here. Just holler.

New ushers, you don't know where the hollering room is. You've got to show where she can go watch the service and a baby can holler as loud as they want. Just holler. And there's games and toys in there. If you want to go to that room, just start hollering with your parents right now. Mama didn't quit on us even when we were difficult to raise. I know y'all look like y'all got it together now. But y'all stretched your parents. Mama just had it with you.

I can remember the last time my mama let me have it. I was on the high school football team. And I came to her and I said, "I'm not going to jump. I'm not going to run. I'm just going to stand here and take it." I stood there like a man. She wore my behind out. But I didn't crack. I didn't crack. I just looked at her. I walked away and crumbled to the ground crying. She told me, she said, "This is the last time we're going to go through this. We're not going to go through this anymore. Next time, if there is a next time," she said, because then some of y'all remember beds that had slats. She said, "I'm not going to worry about it next time. I'm going to lift the bed up. I'm going to get a slat just for you."

Listen, I was glad when God called me up a little bit higher. But we are who we are because somebody poured into our lives. I told you my mother worked nights. She didn't have time for all that foolishness out of me. I mean, I was a mess. I was a mess. I brought home my sixth-grade report card. Then, sixth-grade report cards, the teachers used to write in your grades. It used to be like a cardboard piece of paper.

Not all that computer printout stuff. They wrote in your grades with an ink pen. And then they wrote comments for how you acted all semester long. They gave me a grade I didn't like. I changed that grade. D turns into B. I brought that bad boy home. My mother said, "Is this?" I said, "Teacher wrote down the wrong grade." She said, "Well, we're going to call the teacher tonight." I told you I was a mess.

But I'm not the only mess in this room. God can take us from mess to miracle. There are miracles all over this room. We went left when we should have gone right. This text, we have not always been easy. And if we're honest, some of us are alive today because a praying woman refused to give up. Why didn't she quit? Grace held her. Grace held her mind together. Grace held her family together.

Grace held her through disappointment. Grace held her through exhaustion. Grace held her when nobody else noticed her burden. And the truth is, many of us are beneficiaries of somebody else's grace-filled endurance. Let's get ready to put some gravy on this. Can I close it like I feel it? The reason some of us made it to adulthood is because mama didn't quit. When money got low, hallelujah, she kept going anyway.

When tears fell at night, she kept going anyway. When life became unfair, she kept going anyway. When she got exhausted, she kept going anyway. I give God some praise through every hard season. Grace held her. That is why some of you ought to praise God right now. Because there was a praying woman, a faithful woman, a grace-filled woman who refused to stop believing in you.

And if you know grace held your mother, grace held your grandmother, grace held your family, matter of fact, grace held you, you ought to open up your mouth and give God some praise. For grace kept holding on when life tried to make you quit. Thank God mama didn't quit. Thank God she kept on praying. Mama didn't quit. I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on Jesus. Keep on pressing. Keep on praising.

Keep on lifting up holy hands. Keep on giving God the glory. Because every time I turn around, he keeps on blessing me. Same God back then. Same God right now. Died on Calvary's cross. Got up one Sunday morning with all power in his hands. Thank you, mama, for not quitting. Thank you, mama, for not giving up. Thank you, mama, for your prayers. Do you love him? Ain't he alright? Yes!

Thank God that mama didn't quit. Even when you felt like quitting, I'm going to keep on pressing, keep on praising, keep on believing, keep on trusting God. And I thank God for mamas that don't quit. But I thank God for a God who doesn't quit. He doesn't quit loving us. Doesn't quit getting caught up with our drama. Look past my faults and see my needs. A God who doesn't quit.

You've been listening to the radio broadcast of the First Baptist Church of Highland Park in Landover, Maryland. If you want to receive a CD or DVD of what you have just heard, please call 301-773-6655 or visit us on the worldwide web, fbhp.org. And remember, there's power at the park.